As part of its hands-on, nature-based curriculum, Learning Gate School has chosen to build all future additions to its campus in an environmentally friendly way. Learning Gate required additional classroom space for its growing student body and for this project, they chose to achieve LEED for Schools Platinum status. The students have become ambassadors for the project and have absorbed the principles within their daily routines.

This LEED project encompasses three structures connected by a covered walkway with spaces including four restrooms and ten classrooms. One classroom was set aside for green and public education and will be available for use after hours and on weekends. This classroom highlights the technical and material features of the building. more at USGBC.org

When the pre-kindergraten through eighth grade kids of SSIS Charter School returned from spring-break this year, they discovered a brand new school. Renovations were just completed on the SSIS's new project, a former parochial school building. The 19,000 sf campus received updated mechanical systems, lighting, new flooring, fresh paint, and some re-configured spaces. For the first time the school has a stage, library, and a gymnasium. During the renovation all low chemical and low VOC products were used to keep the childern safe healthy while they learn.

August 16, 2010 (Sarasota, FL) Learning Gate Community School, a charter school in Hillsborough County with a curriculum that emphasizes nature, agriculture and environmental responsibility, became the first public school in the United States to earn LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The project, 3 new buildings, consisting of 10 classrooms and an 8,000-square-foot addition to the middle school campus, was designed by Carlson Studio Architecture.

Jedd W. Heap, LEED AP of Carlson Studio Archietcture will be accompanying the Learning Gate Community School demonstration exhibit to the National Charter School Conference in Chicago on June 28th, 2010. The Conference is featuring a prototype version of the LEED Platinum prefab structure in their exhibition hall. Learning Gate Community School has applied what they learned by building their own LEED classroom additional and packaging it with their cutting edge enviromental cirriculum. "Learning Gate in a box" was the idea of the school's principal Patti Girard, and will offered to other charter schools looking to begin teaching through nature.

The Learning Gate Community School in Lutz, FL earned a "U.S. Green Building Council's Excellence in Green Building Education" Recognition Award for its commitment to the environment and green building education.